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Single Idea 20796

[filed under theme 20. Action / B. Preliminaries of Action / 1. Intention to Act / c. Reducing intentions ]

Full Idea

The sceptics say there are three movements of the soul: presentation, impulse and assent. …And action requires two things: a presentation of something to which one has an affinity, and an impulse toward what is presented as an object of affinity.

Gist of Idea

Action needs an affinity for a presentation, and an impulse toward the affinity

Source

Plutarch (74: Reply to Colotes [c.85], 1122c)

Book Ref

'The Stoics Reader', ed/tr. Inwood,B/Gerson,L.P. [Hackett 2008], p.37

A Reaction

Not much reasoning involved in this account, which the sceptics say is compatible with suspension of judgement.

The 4 ideas with the same theme [explaining intentions by more basic ingredients]:

20796 Action needs an affinity for a presentation, and an impulse toward the affinity [Plutarch]
20024 Davidson gave up reductive accounts of intention, and said it was a primitive [Davidson, by Wilson/Schpall]
20032 Bratman rejected reducing intentions to belief-desire, because they motivate, and have their own standards [Bratman, by Wilson/Schpall]
20031 On one model, an intention is belief-desire states, and intentional actions relate to beliefs and desires [Wilson/Schpall]